Why MakerBot Didn't Kickstart A 3D Printing Revolution (backchannel.com)

Bre PettisâS once said MakerBot gave you a superpower -- "You can make anything you need." But four years later, mirandakatz writes that though MakerBot promised to revolutionize society, "That never happened." At Backchannel, Andrew Zaleski has the definitive, investigative account of why the 3D printing revolution hasn't yet come to pass, culled from interviews with industry observers, current MakerBot leadership, and a dozen former MakerBot employees. As he tells it, "In the span of a few years, MakerBot had to pull off two very different coups. It had to introduce millions of people to the wonders of 3D printing, and then convince them to shell out more than $1,000 for a machine. It also had to develop the technology fast enough to keep its customers happy. Those two tasks were too much for the fledgling company."

Comments

It's always cost

[Anonymous Coward]

Do I spend a grand and a bunch of time learning the software necessary to print the widget, or do I buy the widget for $2 and spend no time learning how to use software? Virtually everyone I know with a 3D printer uses it for pointless projects that have no practical value. If it isn't a premade design, they're not printing it.

because

[Threni]

nobody wants to spend £1000+ on a device which makes shitty low quality christmas cracker toys. It was obvious from the start that this was this seasons desktop publishing fad. The sort of people who it was argued would use these are already aware of better alternatives.

Re:because

[AmiMoJo]

3D printing has some very good uses. Makerbot's problem is that rather than owning your own £1000 device just to do a few prints now and then, it makes more sense to use an online 3D printing service or the one at the local Hackerspace.

The online services are fairly cheap and have better quality printers. They offer finishing too like polishing, better materials and tighter tolerances. You would have to do a hell of a lot of 3D printing to make it worth buying your own printer.

!Revolution

[mwvdlee]

The internet was a revolution, starting with a few networked government buildings.
Mobile phones were a revolution, starting with heavy briefcases that barely worked anywhere.
Computers were a revolution, starting with speeds so slow a human could keep up.

None of these revolutions happened overnight.

3D printers will become cheaper and will become common place so slowly, we won't even notice it until only in hindsight we will say "it was a revolution".
It may take another 20 years to get there, but we will.

Kind of obvious...

[MindPrison]

Here in Sweden a typical Makerbot would set you back 18K Sek (that's roughly 2000$) and for what? A slow, primitive - made out of wood 3D printer that looks like it was made by a bunch of tech kids at a high school.

It also takes TONS of fiddling around, and the patience of a saint to even produce something useful with it. If you want something better like the Ultimaker 2 or 3, you pay around 4000-5000$ in Sweden, and most people aren't ready to fork out that kind of money. However, you can always gamble on cheap Chinese clones of the older makerbots, often made in plastic instead of wood or just coated wood for that matter, but the same enthusiast process involved, it is NOT just print and you're ready, it takes TONS of work. Lots of preparation, and you need to clean and prep. your 3D work before you hit the print button so to speak.

I'm a 3D modeler, I've been working with 3D for over 20 years. I've YET to see a useful home-model that isn't just "look - I - printed - a - stock - model - ma!" tech demo. You'll actually be better off with a good CNC machine if you want to make prototypes on the cheap.

But they're fun tho...if you have the time AND the money to burn on the countless rolls of ABS plastic you're gonna need.

Re:Kind of obvious...

[serviscope_minor]

I'm a 3D modeler, I've been working with 3D for over 20 years. I've YET to see a useful home-model that isn't just "look - I - printed - a - stock - model - ma!" tech demo. You'll actually be better off with a good CNC machine if you want to make prototypes on the cheap.

Yeah because those two things are entirely equivalent. I know my way around a manual lathe and mill well enough to not make an idiot of myself, and I've done a bit of CNC. I also happen to own a 3D printer and know my way round a CAD program well enough to take something simple enough all the way through to production. IOW, I'm a practicioner, not expert.

And I know what you're saying is off the mark.

Milling is a much greater pain in the arse than 3D printing. You just don't have the whole datumming/clamping problem that you have with 3D printing, for a start. I mean don't get me wrong, it's cool to make things out of metal, but christ flood coolant is a mess. A 3D printer is the kind of thing I can have up in my attic office/light workshop.

It can sit there running while I do other stuff and I can leave it overnight. The stock is cheap, easy to get and available in a wide variety of forms (how well does a CNC mill work with soft rubber?). These days it's well enough set up and calibrated that unless I have an awkward part to make (e.g. small contact area, very large) I can pretty much hit print and go. It certainly takes far, far, FAR less prep than milling anything.